The Monster That Dwells Within
by Rhearenee
Summary: Monster AU. The woman was weird, cheery and way too kind for her own good, yet she managed to weed herself into his mind.


_I honestly don't know what I am doing writing for a fandom that's near dead and for a pairing that is deader than that, but I just had to express myself somehow. During Christmas I just suddenly started reading GrimmHime and instantly loved it so much that an idea presented its self so fast that I got whiplash. And here I've been trying to come up with something for HitsuMatsu for years, but a single prompt from tumblr and all the ideas about monsters set my mind in motion._

 _So this essentially is a monster AU (the title itself is a reference to what Grimm is), many concepts are still similar to how it originally was in Bleach, except the Espada and such are different now. I'll try to explain it in story. I also hope to all that's holy that I managed to get Orihime right, I've never written a character like her in a leading position. It's also one of the reasons why I chose to write from Grimmjow's pov. Grimm is just easier for me to understand than Hime. Also another reason was for the plot's sake. Writing from Hime's pov would have been borderline annoying at some parts and would have pushed me to turn Grimm into a blabbing exposition machine, which would beat one of the points in the story naught. Due to circumstances I did have to make Grimm a bit more mature than he normally is, also I didn't feel like I wanted to write him as a temperamental monkey that throws shit at you the first moment he doesn't like something, it's childish. I tried to keep his other qualities, though._

 _Anyway, I dedicate this to the other GrimmHime fans that are still here, scourging the fandom for any kind of scraps for this pair. I'm happy to provide this one-shot, that at one point got out of hand._

 _Rated due to the minor gore and Grimmy's bad mouth._

* * *

He'd been following the man for a while, the pungent scent of his soul highly alluring to him. He'd followed the unsuspecting human all through the mall. He was hungry – he hasn't been able to find a good soul to devour for a while now. It wasn't everyday he could come across a human who possessed destructive traits that scented their souls just right. Eating the souls of drunks or a whore or two wasn't as fulfilling.

Grimmjow kept a respectable distance between himself and the businessman, grinning to himself when the man walked into the toilets. It wasn't the ideal place to feed, but he was desperate and was able to let that little fact slide. The risk of getting caught did add some flavour to the whole ordeal, though.

He casually strode his way into the public bathroom, wrinkling his nose at the poignant odour that always seemed to be in such places. Humans were such disgusting creatures which was saying something since he'd been around Nnoitra, who was disgusting on a scale of his own. He had half a mind to just turn around and walk out from the smell alone, but his hunger won out in the end.

The businessman was just finishing up at the urinal when Grimmjow walked in. The room was empty besides him and his prey. The man went to wash his hands at the sink, not noticing Grimmjow standing at the entrance.

He turned to the right where a mirror was mounted to the whole side of the wall, above the sinks. His own reflection met him - a shock of blue, spiky hair and a manic grin that was borderline inhuman. He could see his own reflection flicker to a black monster with skeletal like features from his own excitement at being so close to his prey. He knew the flickering of his disguise wasn't visible to humans, so he paid it no mind.

He stuck his hands in his pockets and let his posture slouch a bit, waiting for the man to finish up and notice him.

The brown haired man closed the tap and patted down his wet hands on his slacks. When he raised his head and locked eyes with Grimmjow he faltered, eyeing him weirdly. The suited man took his shopping bag and went to walk past him in an arch.

All the while Grimmjow kept his eyes on the man's movements and when he passed him he struck out with his hand, grabbing the man by his jugular and slamming him against a bathroom stall.

The man spluttered, his shopping bag falling from his grasp and hands settling on his assailant's arm, trying to struggle free.

Grimmjow sneered showing sharp teeth and threw the man to the other side of the room, smirking a bit when a pleasant crunch came from the man's body.

While the pathetic human struggled to regain his breath he went over the possible ways of killing the man. Impaling was his favourite, but today he was feeling especially crafty. The possibility that someone might come in any second made him almost giddy. He wished that someone would come just so he could have an excuse to wreck carnage and explore new ways to extract the souls from humans.

The man was pleading, holding his bruised neck as Grimmjow advanced. Quick and effective was usually his way, but this time he wanted for the human to feel fear, to reflect back on his life and the destruction he had caused in the business company he worked at – it made their souls have a sweet aftertaste.

"You'd help your case a lot by crying less," he growled in a low, menacing tone and picked the blabbering man back up again by the throat, and slammed him against the stall again. He let his sharp teeth show and raised his other free hand which was now coloured black with long, sharp bone talons. "Then again it'll make it easier for me to shove my hand down your throat." His eyes lit up. Now there was an idea.

The brown haired man's eyes widened at his words, fingers frantically scratching Grimmjow's arm, pleading words falling out of his mouth.

Before the man could wail out a cry he plunged his hand in his mouth, talons going all through the man's head. Okay, maybe it won't work as smoothly as he'd imagined. He pulled out his hand and tried again only this time it was a lot easier with the man already being dead and the entry way already broken open as a fleshy mess. Blood splattered as he pushed his hand down the man's throat as he'd promised. The skin at the man's neck broke from the invasion. He was almost there, near the sweet centre of the heart.

His concentration was broken by opening of the bathroom door.

Wild eyes settled on an orange haired woman at the entrance, shopping bags in one hand. His blue eyes met her grey ones, her form unmoving. He was well aware that his right hand by that point was elbow deep down the human's shredded throat, blood splattered all over his face, clothes and the ground. He expected for her to scream.

She blinked. Once. Twice. And then turned around and exited the bathroom. No sound made, no reaction.

Grimmjow scoffed, disappointed with the anti climatic encounter. And he had hoped so hard that someone would walk in as well. What was wrong with that woman anyway, apart from casually entering the men's bathroom? Who reacted like that? Talk about an unsatisfactory end to a meal.

He easily found what he was looking for and pulled it out, letting the dead body unceremoniously fall on the ground. The heart was in his taloned hand, still warm. He crushed it and immediately popped the ball of light that escaped the crushed heart into his mouth. Tasted just like he'd expected – tangy with a sweet aftertaste.

He growled and kicked the corpse with his boot, angry that the woman had broken his spiel with her reaction. Or how about the lack of a fucking reaction. He opened a portal and let the corpse fall in an unknown dimension while scowling at his bloodied white button-up shirt. Maybe it wasn't his wisest choice to wear white today, but whatever. He ripped his shirt off, buttons flying everywhere and threw that in the portal as well before closing it with a wave of his hand.

His hand, face and the better part of his torso was still bloodied though, so he quickly washed it all off at the sink. He watched his own angered reflection in the mirror and wondered what had went wrong. Normal people usually ran during a situation like that, especially if a monster like him was the killer. Was he really so regular looking that he couldn't even scare a simple woman any more? What was this bullshit?

He ran a hand down his face, growling and with his other punched the mirror, making it shatter in two big pieces and fall on the ground.

What! Now he can't even shatter a fucking mirror correctly? What the fuck is this blasphemy? Did the universe suddenly decide to throw him the proverbial finger?

Stepping on the damn mirror shards he strode out of the bathroom, deciding that he was done with that shit and that he should probably ditch before someone else came in and noticed the blood. There might be no body, but humans still got all uppity if there was even a puddle of blood. He, frankly, didn't give a shit and knew that without any solid evidence no one could trace it back to him, but he still didn't want to be caught at the "crime scene", as they called it. He's had enough bullshit to deal with today.

In the hall he scouted the mass of people for a head of orange, but didn't see her anywhere, though that was to be expected – she had enough time to bail.

Instead worrying about the damn woman he quickly made his way out of the shopping centre. His state of undress was catching attention and as much as he liked it, in that situation he was too pissed to enjoy the flustered looks on some of the women.

Xxx

For the next few days the odd encounter with the orange haired woman plagued him. It was until he came across the thought that she might possibly be the same as him that things started to make sense. Though he knew that there shouldn't be more than ten of them, unless one of them had fallen and she was the replacement. Fuck if he knew, he'd cut ties with the other dick nosed Espada a while ago. Aizen's plans eluded him and he wasn't in the mood to find them out either. But he figured that he at least had to find out if the woman was a new Espada and if she was which idiot had fallen.

It just so happened that on one unlucky day when he'd run into the ever death elusive Kurosaki brat that he saw her again. And surprise, surprise those two knew each other, then again, in a twisted way, it made sense. Figures that the brat that has the dumbest luck in the world was friends with a weirdo. Others – a girl with black spiky, hair and a guy built like a mountain – he passed a fleeting glance, uninteresting on their own.

The Kurosaki brat sighed, rolling his eyes when they locked onto his. "I knew this day was going too well to be true."

Grimmjow stopped in his tracks to growl, his leisure stroll through the streets of Karakura ruined. "What was that, ya little shit stain?" He wasted no time to step up to the orange haired brat, teeth bared in a snarl, ready to sock him in the face at the smallest of provocation.

"Wait, you guys can see him too?" The curious question from the orange haired woman quenched whatever else anyone wanted to say.

Confused the spiky haired woman turned to her. "What are you talking about, Orihime?"

The said girl put her index finger to her lips in thought. "Well, the last time I saw him," she pointed to Grimmjow absent mindedly, "I saw him with a hand down another man's throat."

"Geez, Hime, that's morbid," the black haired girl commented, twisting her face. "No more horror movies for you. It's not polite to accuse others of such things."

She stuttered, waving her hands around. "I-I mean...I'm not sure what I saw. I thought that I was seeing things." Her voice got quieter at the end.

Grimmjow scoffed and stuffed his hands in his pockets, his agitation with Kurosaki forgotten. So the reality was just that the girl was an air head, super composed, but an air head nonetheless. So much for his theory that someone from the Espada had died. He practically had crossed his fingers in hopes that Ulquiorra had bit the bucket and the woman in front of him was the replacement. He let his eyes roam over her voluptuous body appreciatively. Yes, yes, definitely a better replacement for the lanky Espada.

"Are you alright, Inoue?" the Kurosaki brat inquired, turning his attention to the girl.

Orihime laughed sheepishly, dismissing the question with a wave of her hand. "I'm just trying to understand what's going on." She threw a curious side glance his way before turning her attention back to Kurosaki, a smile back on her face.

His brows dropped in a steep arch. Oh, he saw that look, he knows that look. The woman wasn't fooled. She knew something was up.

He ignored their conversation after that and silently slipped into the crowd before more shade was thrown towards him. He didn't want to be around for such a pointless discourse anyway. He supposed that maybe he should've stuck around to see how much the woman actually knew and if she was going to go around and blab her mouth (though the chances of people believing her were low), but it didn't matter in the long run. King of dicks had arranged a meeting in a couple of days for the Espada after a long while – he'll probably get his questions answered then.

If worse comes to worse, he'll just kill the woman, even though her soul was of no interest to him at all. With the quick look he got of her she seemed more like an appropriate meal to Starrk – he had a particular liking towards lonely souls.

Xxx

The bright, hot afternoon sun was blazing down on him. The park was bustling with people of all ages. The screaming was annoying though.

After the meeting with Aizen he wanted to shed some blood. King of dicks didn't tell anything new to him, apart from giving him a disapproving stare that told him that the fucker knew about his disobedience and the fact that he hadn't been following his plan like he'd ordered for a while now. He knew that in due time there will be hell to pay, Aizen was patient and liked to strike when he least expected, but at the moment he didn't really care. He also had found out that everyone was intact. He hadn't seen the other Espada in years and he wished that it'd been longer. Annoying assholes.

To wind down because Mr. I-got-a-stick-the-size-of-a-pole-up-my-ass prohibited fighting in his castle he'd come to the park to scout for a victim. So far his search was unsuccessful and he had half a mind to just throw any kind of caution to wind and cause carnage.

He'd been sitting on the damn park bench for an hour, scaring anyone who dared to look his way with a glare. Fucking humans, always staring. He knew that some of those fucks were staring because of his hair colour. Some other fucks stared in hopes to sit down on his damn bench, which was not going to happen.

His fuming got interrupted when something brushed against one of his arms which were splayed across the back rest in a demonstrative way to keep anyone away. Someone had a death wish.

"Hi!" It was the same orange haired woman from yesterday, the same one that walked in on him feeding. Orihime, was it? Apparently she couldn't take a hint.

"What the fuck do you want?" he nearly yelled, too agitated to control his volume properly. Some people who walked by flinched, throwing odd glances his way. He flipped them the bird, adding a furious glare to the mix. That got them turning away real fast.

The woman wasn't even phased at his tone, smiling in return. "Well, it looked like you were having a bad day, so I wanted to cheer you up, plus I wanted to talk." Only now he noticed an ice cream cone in her hand, which she was unwrapping from its packaging.

"I don't need cheering up," he growled, scaring a kid that walked a bit too close to him in the process. The high pitch scream from the kid almost made him laugh. At least someone knew how to react properly unlike this woman.

Orihime threw the wrapping in the trash can that was near her and took a bite from her beige coloured ice cream. "Really? Because it looks like your puppy died and now you're taking your anger out on everyone."

He raised his eyebrow, confused. "What are you even talking about?" Puppy? Where did she pull that shit from? He glanced at her from the corner of his eye, taking in the glow she seemed to emit with her cheer. It was sickening. Her casualness with him made questions rise in his mind. There seriously was something wrong with her, he just couldn't see exactly what.

She hummed, meeting his eyes briefly. "You're angry and you're pouring your anger out on others."

Grimmjow's hand twitched. It would be so easy to grab her and choke the life out of her. Her brightly coloured hair was already thrown across his arm. All it would take would be a little pull. "So? What else am I supposed to do? Kill everyone? Because I would gladly do so." He retracted his hands to himself if just to get away from her silky strands and slouched lower on the bench while crossing his arms. He peered at the girl to see her reaction at his words.

He was glad to see that this time there was fear in her eyes, her body stiff. She paused in her motions to warily look at him. "Would you really do that?" He briefly noted that he liked the small tone of unease that had entered her soft voice, it was oddly calming and proved that not everything was wrong with this world and that he still could bring terror, albeit not to the extend he had been hoping to.

He chuckled, closing his eyes. Oh, he wanted to, but the social repercussions were too vast for him to go through with it. It was a load of bullshit he wanted no part in. "No, but I can imagine."

She relaxed a bit before averting her gaze to her hands, fiddling with her cone.

They sat like that for a while and her fidgeting was starting to grate on his nerves. She should feel privileged that he even allowed her to sit there for as long as she has, if he didn't find her slightly interesting she would have been dead already.

"Stop fucking squirming and talk already!" Eventually he snapped. It was obvious she was working herself up to ask something and he wasn't the patient kind.

Orihime jolted at his voice, seemingly forgotten that she wasn't alone. "Ah, right, but before that." She turned from him to fumble with her purse, which he hadn't noticed she had on her before. "I saw you before I went in the ice cream store, so while there I found this that oddly reminded me of you."

Interest piqued he righted himself on the bench to see a bit better what she was doing. His eyes didn't stay on her hand for long. He quickly noticed that from his vantage point he had a clear look at her generous amount of cleavage she showed in her pale pink sundress, which only got accentuated when she leaned forward. At least she was easy on the eyes. If she wasn't annoying him right now with her overly enthusiastic cheer he might had even considered to lead their conversation in a different direction.

His view was ruined when she straightened back up and nearly showed something blue in his face. "Here!"

It took Grimmjow a moment to register what the blue and teal, heart shaped thing was before he backhanded it out of her hand. "Do you think I'm a fucking child that you can smooch up to with a damn lollipop?!" he shouted and took her startled face between his fingers, holding her jaw in place and leaned closer to her, invading her personal space. "Watch what you're doing, woman. You know what I am. I could kill you with the sweep of a hand," he growled, letting his voice drop and showed her back.

She righted herself without a sound or a reaction. "I-I...don't know what you are," she whispered, hiding her face behind her curtain of hair. "You're the first one I've seen that can talk and others can see."

He was about to take leave, tired with her antics already, but her admission made him rethink that decision. "The first one?"

She fiddled with her thumbs, her other fingers holding her half eaten ice cream, still staring at the ground. "I've been able to see them ever since I was little – those monsters that walk the streets, houses, everywhere, but no one else seems to notice them." Her voice was so quiet that he almost had to strain himself to hear her over the shouting of people around them.

Slumping back in the bench he realized that he knew what she was talking about. Hollows. Low level beings that collected wandering souls for Aizen to feed on 'cause the bastard himself was too in love with his chair to move his ass away from it. Even now he could see one of the hollows floating aimlessly across the street, it's numerous arms and skull heads twitching around, searching for souls. Humans weren't supposed to see them or even sense them, but apparently this woman somehow could? Only beings like him could have a human looking outer shell and control whether or not their real form was visible to people. Which meant that maybe...Could she see through his disguise as well? Well, crap, now he had to find out.

Grabbing her by the shoulders he shook her to face him. Her ice cream nearly fell out of her dainty hands. "What do I look like?"

She scrunched her eyebrows and tilted her head to the side, eyes locking onto his. "I'm not sure what you mean with that."

Grimmjow resisted the urge to growl and to shake her like a rag doll. "What do you see when you look at me?"

She tilted her head to the other side, confusion across her face.

His patience was nearing its limit. Was she daft?

She interjected before he could open his mouth to yell at her further. "I-I mean I see you...umm...you have nice hair…I...What am I supposed to answer?" She was stuttering and making even less sense, though the light pink on her face told him everything he needed to know. He released her, taking back his previous position.

So he supposed that she was susceptible to hollows and their reiatsu, but she didn't possess enough herself to see through his outer shell. He wouldn't say that her reiatsu was anything special, but it was higher than normal, now when he paid more attention to it, similar to the Kurosaki brat. Except it looked like she was more aware than him, seeing as he has approached Kurosaki multiple times in his form that was invisible to humans and the Carrot-top wasn't aware of his presence at all. Though when he tried to kill him in that form by showing his hand through his body the brat only flinched, whereas such an action to a normal human would have left them with insides made out of mush. The fact that Kurosaki was unkillable made his blood boil.

"...I never did get your name. I'm Inoue Orihime by the way." She broke the quiet, the cheer back in her voice.

"What makes you think I'd want to give away my name?"

She smiled. "Well, friends are supposed to know each others names."

He drew his eyebrows together, frowning he eyed her. What planet does she live on? "From where did you get that we're friends or that I even want to be friends with you – a pathetic flesh bag?" His irritation was climbing back to the levels it previously was. This woman had the audacity to assume that she was on the same plane as him.

Her smile dropped and before she could open her mouth again he got up from the bench and headed towards a random direction. He wasted enough time with her as it is, no point in listening to her further.

Unfortunately for him the woman was stubborn. "Wait!" She was running after him and making a scene. Apparently some people had seen their exchange and were staring, getting the wrong message.

He picked up his pace, but the woman was unrelenting, catching up to him. She even had the guts to grab at the back of his shirt.

"Please," she panted, still holding onto him. "I just need to know if those things are real, if what I am seeing is real. Otherwise sometimes I feel like I'm losing my mind."

She wasn't letting go and he felt that she was coming even closer. He ripped his shirt out of her hands and swivelled to face her. He wanted to yell at her that she had already lost her damn mind, but in an odd act of composure held his tongue. Were those fucking tears in her eyes? Yeah, no, he wasn't going to deal with that shit.

"It's real." He sighed allowing the woman have the comfort she wanted before he used sonido to finally get away, seemingly disappearing from her view. By that point he didn't care how many people were around to see his vanishing act. He was still on edge and it was obvious that he won't be able to let loose in the middle of a park.

Xxx

For the next few days she was like an unavoidable disease, always finding him and chattering away like he was an old lost friend, like their previous conversation hadn't happened. He never did understand how she was able to locate him even at the oddest of places. Maybe her sensing abilities were a lot better than he first gave them credit for. He wasn't exactly flailing his reiatsu around like a flag either, so that's saying something. It annoyed him nevertheless.

She didn't even ask him the questions he'd expected from her, instead most of the time she talked about her day, the weather, absolute nonsense or if she did ask him questions she asked the dumbest ones possible. He should just kill her and save himself the brain cells. Though if he did then it would mean that her soul would be sent to Aizen and that was something he'd been denying the asshole for a while, and now after their last meeting he wanted to do it even less. It was a decision between a rock and a hard place. Flip one to Aizen or rid himself of a pest?

Inadvertently Orihime was the lesser of two evils and unlike the king Dick himself she could be bearable at times. Her lack of fear still disturbed him though, even when she herself had gone to explain that seeing monsters was something she was used to and that he was nothing compared to her parents, he felt like she should learn to exercise more caution. The woman got weirder and weirder each time he saw her.

Even now when he honestly had nothing to do, but scourge the streets the woman was following him like a lost puppy, except this time she was deathly quiet. At one point she had disappeared somewhere for twenty minutes before she was back again only with a plastic bag in her hand.

He'd yelled at her plenty of times, threatened physical harm and actually rough-housed her around a bit, but she never left like any other normal person would have done. It was baffling. By this point he wasn't sure if he liked her stubbornness or found it irritating. Who would have thought that there would be someone out there who'd want to spend so much time with him willingly? Certainly not him, he hated people and wasn't afraid to voice that opinion.

"Grimmjow-san?" She broke their silence.

He gave a non-committal grunt to indicate that he's listening. He partially still couldn't believe that she'd managed to weed his name out of him with food, human food no less – a couple of fucking pastries she'd brought with her from work. Curiosity is going to be the death of him someday.

"I..." She suddenly stopped and stood to face him, effectively halting him as well. "What's that on your face?"

He realized way too late that she was reaching out towards him. "Don't touch my face!" He swatted her hand away, but it was too late and he briefly felt her warm fingers on his right cheek. Glaring at her doe eyed face he went to absent-mindedly touch the spot she did only to be met with bone and not skin.

"What is that?" Surprise was all across her face, her hands clutched together in front of her.

Honestly he was surprised himself. Under his fingertips were the jagged edges of teeth of the bone fragment he has when in his true form. Somehow she saw through his outer shell and brought it out to the surface. How powerful was this chick? He went to swipe the fragment away, but the action proved fruitless. And now he can't get rid of it either. Wonderful. He realized that he hadn't eaten anything in a couple of days, his recent hunts hadn't bared no fruit, thus he was a bit at a loss of power. Maybe he should have been a bit less picky, though getting sick by eating something incompatible wasn't very appealing either.

Grimmjow growled and ignored her question, pushing her away from his path to continue his way down the street. The woman had been distracting him way too much, in person and in his mind. It's embarrassing and unsightly to see that his power has dropped so far as to render him unable to revert a manifestation of his true form.

Orihime trudged up to him, keeping her eyes locked on to the ground. "I'm sorry if I upset you. I didn't mean to do that. I'm just worried."

He laughed bitterly, making her flinch. "You should be more worried about yourself, dumb girl."

She pouted, turning her head to the side.

He chose to ignore her and stuffed his hands in his pockets. A woman passed them, eyeing him weirdly. He grit his teeth. But of course, now he looked like a freak in the eyes of humans with the bone fragment on. He had nothing against people avoiding him, moving away from his path, but he hated when those fucks stared at him for all of the wrong reasons. They should fear him, scream and run, not look at him like a circus exhibition. A group of teenagers further up the street were looking at him as well and whispering something to each other. That was the last straw.

"Watcha lookin' at you fuckin' cockroaches?!" His shouting startled the children and made people's heads turn towards him. It was late evening, but there was still enough people on the streets to cause a bit of a commotion, the few bypassing cars failing to stem the volume of his voice. "Fuck!" he cursed before he turned down a different street to avoid the staring. Sometimes hindsight wasn't his strong point.

Fingers itching for some friction he swiftly made his way towards an alley where he knew that a clearing of sorts was at the other end. He knew the Sakurabashi district quite well, so if he was right then about this time of the day there should be a couple of teenagers drinking their minds away in the clearing between apartment complexes. In his mind they were the perfect prey and right now he was too pissed to care about anything else.

Grimmjow grinned when his assumption proved true. In long strides he walked up to the first teenager he saw and grabbed her by the scruff of her jacket.

The teenager shouted in protest, but it was soon cut short as Grimmjow ripped out her throat with his claws. Screaming ensued, bottles fell to the ground and the other few teens scattered. He didn't hear any of it, too immersed into the feeling of taking a life, of blood on his claws.

Still holding the body close, he plunged his hand into its chest, pleased at the crunching and squelching sound it made. He made a complete and utter mess of the insides with just clawing around. He wasn't even sure if the soul of this teenager would be able to sate him. Ripping out whatever it was he caught hold on he plunged his hand back in, scraping around the ribcage. He quickly deduced that he'd shredded everything into a mess and that the ball of light he was so desperately seeking for was in the middle of the mess. Grabbing it he popped it into his mouth, grimacing at the taste. Tasted like shit; intoxication was something Zommari preferred. Dropping the corpse on the ground he let it fall into the portal he created like always.

"Grimmjow-san?"

Whipping around, claws extended he nearly swiped off Orihime's head, managing to divert his swipe in the last second. "Fucking hell, woman. Do you want me to kill you?" He'd completely forgotten about her. He'd figured that she would just go home after he'd stormed off. Apparently not.

Her eyes widened upon noticing his bloodied, taloned hand. She clutched her bag to herself, taking a shaky step back.

His own eyes drifted to his hand, noting that it was stained red, with a bit of something fleshy caught on one of the claws. Seeing her eyes drift somewhere behind him he also realized that he'd never closed the portal he'd created, having been distracted.

"What is that?" she whispered, taking another step back, wide eyes darting between him and the black portal.

He smirked. Finally she was afraid, finally it got through her thick skull that he's dangerous. Raising his right hand he flexed his bloodied, clawed fingers in front of her, the residue flesh falling to the ground for dramatic effect. "This is what I am, Orihime – a monster that kills your kind for food." Her mouth opened and closed, fear across her face. "Now is the part where you run."

Her expression suddenly changed, fear got replaced by determination. Despite her shaking she stepped forward, grey eyes hard. "No! I'm done with running. I-I'm not afaird."

Pleasantly surprised Grimmjow picked up the discarded jacket at his feet and wrapped it around his hand. Instinct had brought it out despite him not possessing enough energy. His meal had been shabby, it was barely enough to close the open portal and definitely not enough to get rid now of two manifestations of his true form. "You really wanna get killed that badly?"

She shook her head, meeting his eyes dead on, voice firm. "If you wanted to kill me you'd already done so."

Well, fuck, she was right. Not so stupid then is she. Still hearing it out loud turned his short glee into irritation. He was back at square one – pissed and hungry. Not a good combination when it concerned him. "Whatever," growling he dismissed her statement, not wanting to dwell on the subject lest she make other accusing statements that would worsen his already shitty mood. The fact that she'd gotten under his skin with just persistence already was annoying enough.

Avoiding looking at his warped up hand she bit her lip, swaying from foot to foot, seemingly wanting to say something else.

Deciding to ignore her once again he changed course towards the street. He wasn't in the mood to deal with her or her questions, food was in order and to do it proper scouting would be required. He could already feel the sickness rising in his stomach. He briefly considered stealing human food, while it wasn't as filling it tended to get the job done in dire situations, but the hassle and the idea of it didn't seem as appealing. Nothing seemed appealing at the moment. Unless…

He stopped in his tracks and turned around. Orihime was still standing where he last left her, a far away look on her face. Maybe she could be useful in some way.

Grimmjow trudged back up to her, startling her back into awareness with his presence. "Got anything to eat?"

She blinked, staring him like he was an alien. "Huh?"

He bit back the urge to growl. She wasn't making this decision easy. "Food? Do ya have any?"

Recognition passed her face, a smile immediately slipping across her lips. "Oh, yes. I can make you something to eat if you want. I don't live too far from here."

"Great. Let's go."

She really was too kind for her own good and too much of an airhead. Still it seemed she had her own goals. He couldn't shake off the feeling like she was trying to weed something out of him in her own weird way. Maybe that explained her lack of logical fear. Then again, nothing seemed logical about her. Instead of running like a normal person she'd spaced out, emptiness clouding her eyes.

He silently followed the woman, watching her hair swish with her every step. He noticed that her gait was a lot more stiff than it was before, possibly from having witnessed him killing a kid or simply because he was trailing behind her, clawed hand still wrapped up in the jacket. Normally he wouldn't walk behind anyone, but this time he gladly made the sacrifice if just to see her walk like a retarded penguin.

There was something admirable yet stupid how readily she walked towards danger, ignoring her own safety just to help others. He had to admit that he had kind of grown to like her bravery in spite of her own terror. He knew from experience that it wasn't a trait that prevailed in humans often, having witnessed many humans run away from the slightest mention of something horrifying. Not her though. His first assumptions about her had been proven wrong, but only slightly. She still was a ditz and way too cheery for his liking.

Only when she had led him up to a third floor in an apartment complex the sudden thought that he would might have to meet with her family or worse – a boyfriend entered his mind.

She stopped in front a nondescript door and fumbled through her purse for keys.

He quickly cast the thought aside, realizing that the one time she'd mentioned family it had been in past tense and that the chances of her having a boyfriend seemed low. With how persistent she seemed to gain his attention he was almost inclined to believe that she wanted to get into his pants in her own weird way. Though, who the fuck knew what was actually going through that brain of hers.

Finally finding her keys with a plethora of charms attached to them she unlocked her door. She stepped in leaving the door open for him to follow. Upon entering her humble abode he was immediately met with the smell of coconut.

Orihime set her bags aside and quickly slipped off her sandals before turning to him. "Umm...is there anything you prefer?"

He ripped his eyes away from the shelves of books that were lining one of the walls and the many trinkets on the shelves to her. "Not really. Make whatever you want, I don't care."

Her eyes momentarily fell on his wrapped hand before settling back to his face. "Uh...you can go to the bathroom to wash that up...I...umm..." She was nervous and tripping over words. She also kept fidgeting with the hem of her floral printed sweater, suddenly avoiding his concentrated gaze.

"Yeah, sure." He took off his shoes and unwrapped the bloody jacket from his right arm, throwing the bloodied clothing article aside for now. Thankfully she didn't comment further, quickly taking her escape in the kitchen.

Grimmjow washed up in her cluttered bathroom (Did she seriously need that many types of fucking shampoo? And seriously, was that a sponge in the shape of a bunny?) and tried to ignore the smell of coconut that was all over her apartment. It was nauseating and way too sweet. How did she even get a scent like that to practically stick to everything? Wait, did that mean that she smelled like coconut too? He'd never been close enough to her to smell anything and every time she'd gotten closer he'd been too pissed to pay attention.

Once out he made himself comfortable on her couch while she fiddled in her kitchen, sounds of cutlery being moved flowing into the living room. He briefly ran his eyes over her TV set, settling to concentrate on her book shelves instead. When entering he saw a small shrine as well. Craning his neck towards where he'd seen it he scoffed, noticing incense sticks under a photo of a man. So that was what was at fault for the sickening smell. With how prevailing it was she must be burning them quite often. He never understood human traditions, especially those concerning the dead.

Groaning he ran a hand through his tousled hair, wincing when he accidentally scraped himself with his claws. He has been spending so much time in the human world under his disguise that he's forgotten how to avoid such stupid mistakes as that. He briefly considered to drop the disguise all together if just to let himself loose and feel the power coursing through him. Then he remembered that his true form might frighten Orihime and oddly enough at that moment he didn't want her to fear him. Why though?

Deciding not to search for answers that might only anger him he turned towards the sudden loud clanking noise the woman made in the kitchen. He was bored anyway, so might as well go and see what she was doing.

When he entered her kitchen, which thankfully was free from the coconut smell, he was met with a mass of ingredients on her counter and a lot of bowls. She was in the middle of mixing something together in a bowl. The loud sound had come from her dropping a metal bowl on the floor which she still hadn't picked up.

Suddenly she turned, startling when noticing him, but quickly composing herself. "Oh...I..." Her eyes drifted to his black, clawed hand, which for that reason he wasn't able to stuff in his pocket. "I'm going to make some yakisoba if that is alright with you?" Her grey eyes trailed back to his, an unsure expression on her face.

Grimmjow huffed, rolling his eyes. Her suddenly being so uncertain was contradictory to her previous actions. "I don't care as long it's something to eat."

A smile spread across her lips. "I just need to cut this all up, cook it and then it should be done." She gestured to the vegetables on the table with the spoon in her hand.

"Sure."

She went back to work, picking up a box of mushrooms and working to slice them into pieces. He silently watched her. The stiffness in her back was still there. At least she was being more reasonably cautious today. Her dainty hands moved the knife swiftly across the cutting board. His eyes drifted from her hands to her back, most of it covered by her hair. Trailing down he briefly appreciated the curve of her ass covered by a white, knee length skirt before settling on the visible parts of her naked legs.

His leering got interrupted when she spoke up. "Where do you live?"

Glaring at the back of her head he sat on the kitchen table behind him. "You planning to spy on me?" A grin split across his face when he saw her still her movements.

"N-no. I'm just curious. You already know where I live, so I thought that it's only fair." Orihime briefly peered over her shoulder at him before she quickly resumed her task, only this time slower.

"Uh-huh." She flinched briefly at his sarcastic tone and he had to laugh at how responsive she was to his teasing. He honestly had nothing to hide in that aspect, but seeing her flinch was entertainment enough. Now how far could he take it? "I don't have a home."

She paused to slide the cut mushrooms in a bowl and continued with cutting up a carrot in strips. "Really? How do you live then?"

Watching her hands work he crossed his arms, mindful of his taloned hand. "I don't have the same needs you humans have, so I have no need to be tied down to a single space. As long as I keep myself fed I'm fine."

"Ooh, so you're like a vampire then?"

"Fuck no! I'm way more badass than a fucking vampire."

She put the carrot pieces in a separate bowl and went on to peel and slice an onion. "Hmm, then what are you?"

"You 'ain't getting that info so easily." He laughed. "Besides there was this weird thing that humans can't know about us and the universe unless they wanna go cuckoo."

Sadly for him he'd slipped and revealed her way more than he'd initially had wanted about the topic and she clung to it. "Us? So there are more like you out there?"

Grimmjow tsked, turning away from her back, settling to inspect the flower pot she had on her window sill instead. "What did I say about goin' cuckoo?"

"Oh right, sorry."

She went quiet after that, but Grimmjow intended to take advantage of her suddenly chatty mood. If she could ask questions then so could he, he had been holding back on them long enough anyway. At first he hadn't said anything in hopes she'd get bored, but that hadn't been the case. By now she was cutting meat into long strips. "What's your deal anyway?"

"Huh? What do you mean?"

He growled quietly, knowing that he'll have to explain it to her. "Well, for starters you keep following me like you're thirsty for my dick."

Orihime jounced, turning to him, face scarlet from his vulgar language. "I-I'm n-not...n-not doing t-that." She shook her hands in front of her face, knife still in hand.

He roared in laughter at her distraught and embarrassed expression. "Really? Women only tend to try to get my attention that hard when they want to get in my pants." He unabashedly ran his eyes over her form. "Not that I mind."

She puffed her cheeks, brows drawn together. "D-don't say that. I-I know you've been staring a-at my chest, so-so don't p-project your l-lewd thoughts on me." Despite the stutter and her trembling she had raised her voice a bit, eyes hard.

Oh, so she had noticed. Maybe she wasn't as oblivious as he had thought. And all this time he was sure that his blatant staring at her boobs had gone unnoticed by her. Still a smirk spread across his lips. She was so jumpy it was hilarious. "Then do pray tell why you are following me?"

Her eyes fell to the floor, hands limp by her side. She was deathly still. "Because when you're around the monsters go away," she whispered.

He raised his eyebrow. "If you haven't noticed then I am one of those monsters," he replied, sarcasm lacing his voice.

She licked her lips, swaying on her feet a bit. "I mean the scary ones, that look like...like mushed people." She gestured with her hands briefly like she was squeezing something. "Whenever you're around I don't see them any more, but when I'm alone they are everywhere, even sometimes in my place. I-it's scary, they're scary and they make weird gurgling sounds."

Grimmjow sighed. So she stuck to him because he kept the hollows away. He knew that the hollows only steered clear of his path from the fear of being eaten. He didn't eat them that much at all because ass ugly spaghetti face Aizen had prohibited them to actively eat the hollows after the incident with Yammy when he had devoured almost all of the hollows in the city he resided. He honestly didn't care, Aizen's hollows weren't that good to eat anyway.

"I'm sorry if I've been a bother to you, I didn't mean to be, but I don't have anyone else to go to. Everyone else is busy with their own lives most of the time... I-I don't like being alone." With her face back to being tomato red she turned back around and resumed her cutting of the meat, movements a bit frantic.

He didn't reply to her admission, preferring to stare at her brightly coloured hair instead.

Loneliness. That's what he sees when he looks at her soul. At first it hadn't made sense, seeing how cheerful and full of life she was. Now, though, he could see it – a lone, scared girl with no family. He knew that she had plenty of friends, but apparently that wasn't enough? He never particularly got that emotion, never had experienced much of it either, his aspect, after all, was destruction. He lived for it, searched for it, caused it, but loneliness...nope that was something almost alien to him.

He got up from his spot and walked up to her and leaned against the counter, ignoring the way she momentarily froze up at his proximity. The air around them had turned glum and he could practically feel her wallowing in self-pity. He hated to admit it, but he almost preferred to see her talkative, happy self. At least then she didn't look like she was on the verge of crying and he hated crying.

She put the cut up meat aside and went to work on the cabbage and scallions. He noticed that she was doing everything that she could to avoid his blue gaze.

"Do ya have a boyfriend?"

His sudden question startled her, making her face him. "W-what? No." She turned away, hair shielding her face while she cut the scallions.

Grimmjow knew what the answer would be before she even gave it, but at that moment he had no clue what he had been doing. The first thing that came to his mind just slipped out. He had to get her out of her slump somehow. It just so happened that he was pretty good at asking stupid questions as well. "Ya want one?"

Her head snapped to him, eyes wide and cheeks by now permanently red. Her brows drew together when she noticed him grinning at her mischievously. She pouted and pointed her knife at him. "Don't joke with me like that."

He leaned closer to her knife, grin replaced by a scowl and grabbed it by the blade with his non-clawed hand. Orihime gasped. "If you're planning to attack me with that thing then don't challenge me to a fight you can't win." He increased his grip on the blade breaking it. He let the broken pieces fall to the floor, revealing to her that he was unharmed by the sharp edge of the knife.

It was utterly hilarious to see her shocked face, mouth open and all, staring at her broken knife. He had to silently chuckle to himself. "I-I didn't mean...I wasn't thinking...I'm sorry," she spluttered an apology, lowering the handle.

At least he wasn't alone in the 'not thinking' part at that moment. What kind of fucking thing possessed him to ask her something like that? Fucking hell. That wasn't what he really wanted to do….maybe…. Honestly fuck that, he wasn't going to give something like that extra thought.

She turned to dispose of the broken knife and pulled out a new one from a drawer, sighing in the process. She picked up the bowl that was on the ground and resumed cutting the scallions like nothing had happened.

Okay, maybe that hadn't been the correct thing to do. Even if she wasn't on the verge of crying any more she still looked glum and that look was eerily reminding him of Ulquiorra. Now that definitely was something he didn't want to think about.

"Why do you wear make-up?"

He raised his eyebrow at her out of the blue question.

She turned to him a small smile on her face, mirth dancing in her eyes. With her finger she pointed to the corner of her eyes. "Those teal things."

He bristled. "It's not fuckin' make-up, they are markings. I can't choose what I get to have and what not."

"Ah," she said airily before resuming cutting the cabbage. Was she making fun of him? "They look pretty on you." Oh, she definitely was. That little wench. She was getting back at him for his previous joke, wasn't she? The suspiciously happy curve to her lips told everything. _Touché, Orihime, touché._

Grimmjow grumbled incoherently and moved away from her, taking a seat at the kitchen table. Was she fooling him before with that glum act to get him to lower his guard? Who the fuck really knew, but she did effectively get under his skin. He honestly couldn't control whether he has hollow markings or not. It wasn't like he could just choose how his appearance looked like, what Aizen gave them they got.

They stayed quiet after that and Orihime went to cook the cut up ingredients in a wok. She made quick work of cooking everything. It smelled fucking delicious, although he had to stare curiously when she went the extra mile and garnished with cheese and pickles. Now he wasn't an expert in human food, but he got the feeling that that wasn't something you normally added to a yakisoba dish.

Effortlessly she set the table. "I had some leftover cheese and pickles laying in the fridge and I had nowhere to put them, so I added them. I hope you don't mind."

He grunted in answer, ignoring the cheer that was back on her face and picked up the chopsticks she had laid down.

She didn't wait for him to start eating herself, humming a tune between bites.

He watched her stuff her face for a moment before he took a bite himself. His eyes widened when the taste set in. What the hell? This definitely didn't taste right. Still he continued if just to get the awful churning in his abdomen away from the incompatible soul he'd devoured before.

That evening he left her place with an odd taste in his mouth like no other. Orihime just kept thanking him for his company completely fine and he had to wonder if she'd done something to the food on purpose because he knew that her pastries were amazing and nothing indicated of her being a bad cook. Maybe she was a lot more vindictive than he thought. At least he got what he wanted – a sliver of strength to hide the clawed hand and bone fragment.

Xxx

After his visit to Orihime's place she bothered him a lot less. The few times she searched him up she talked a lot less, avoided looking directly at him and had developed a case of 'red face'. He wasn't sure what was up with her. Had he said something to finally get her to shut up? He didn't do anything different, apart from actively trying to tease her if just to see her trip over her words like a drunk.

He had accepted the fact that she sees him as a friend, which she honestly shouldn't do, but the woman was stubborn in her ways. By that point he had realized that he doesn't care as much any more anyway. He wasn't planning to kill her, in fact he wasn't planning to do anything with her...okay maybe that wasn't true, since more often than not his thoughts towards her leaned more to the lewd side, but...he didn't think it'd be wise to touch her….Okay...maybe he did break that rule once...he wasn't a fan of rules.

That aside, like he'd expected Aizen had retaliated and he got a beating that was verbal, physical and worse off – mental. That had left him fucked up for days, laying motionless somewhere in Hueco Mundo until his physical body at least healed. He'd been cursing the fucker out relentlessly after that. So now to avoid getting the same treatment he had to do double the workload "to make up for lost time" or some shit like that.

He wanted to say that he didn't give a fuck what Aizen did or said to him, but for the first time since he remembered himself he actually...couldn't? Because if he got killed he wouldn't be able to see her? Possibly? He couldn't really make any sense with it.

She was odd and for some reason was able to look past the fact that he killed people, she had said so herself. For someone who is so kind he would have expected for her to call him a murderer and set him on fire in some kind of weird exorcising attempt. She did none of that until he thought that maybe she's trying to kill him with kindness? Because he thought that it was working.

Nevertheless he did keep an eye out for her just to check if she's alright. She was worried about him after he'd been in a bad shape after his meeting with Aizen and he felt this weird sense of duty to repay her for the effort she'd put into to make him feel better (even if at points it did piss him off) by keeping her safe. After all she was the first person he's met that can put up with his shit with a straight face. Fun part was that she didn't exactly take his insults laying down and she did get back at him in her own interesting way, which more often times than not was harmless and kind of amusing.

Hmm….maybe that was the reason why while on his rounds for prey or unlucky sobs he'd wandered close to where she lives. She was making her way back home from work and he'd just happened to come across her.

She probably knew that he was near, she did have that uncanny ability to sense him and other monsters. Still he didn't show himself to her, choosing to trail her from afar and watch her bright hair swish with her every step.

It was at that moment when he saw a perfect prey present itself. The man had recently destroyed his own public image. He didn't dwell further into the reason, seeing as the creep was standing in an alley, eyeing Orihime pass by like something to devour and not in the sense he looked at his prey.

Well, one shot and to rabbits dead for him – get food and get rid of disgusting men staring at what's his.

The man was practically twitching, eyes wide from watching her walk. His intentions ranged somewhere from pouncing her, talking to her or to leave in cowardice.

Grimmjow used sonido to appear behind the man in the shadows. The poor sap didn't even know what happened, which in a way was a shame, but he wasn't in the mood to mess around, too pissed to be crafty. He plunged his hand through the man's ribcage, his heart in his hand, still beating. He squashed it and pulled his hand out of the corpse. It motionlessly fell on the ground as he popped the ball of light in his mouth. Going through the usual procedure he kicked the corpse into the portal he created.

His hand up to the mid upper arm was now covered in blood, his leather jacket miraculously hadn't suffered any damage from that rough move, although it was drenched in blood, which kind of tended to ruin leather real fast. He honestly didn't care. He shook off the residual blood and with sonido made his way towards Orihime's apartment. Now he kind of wanted to check up on her.

He used her balcony to enter her apartment, which she had left slightly open to air out the humid summer air. It also just so happened that her balcony connected to her bedroom and he had the pleasure to see her in the motion of taking her shirt off, exposing generous amounts of smooth skin.

Sadly she sensed his presence and hastily pulled the shirt back down, whipping to face him, face red. "G-Grimmjow?"

He couldn't help but grin at her flustered state. "By all means don't stop on my account."

She seemed to ignore that sentence, grey eyes settling on his drenched jacket. "What happened?" she whispered, big eyes meeting his.

He scoffed, avoiding that puppy eyed look of hers. "For someone who can sense monsters you're bad at sensing when puny human trash want to take advantage of you."

Her eyes widened, shock settling across her face. "W-what?"

"Don't worry about it. I took care of it."

For a moment she didn't say anything, stock still, but then her eyes for a moment slid down to his hand as everything clicked in her brain. Without warning she fell on him, wrapping her hands around his middle. "Thank you."

This time he was surprised at her sudden proximity. He was suddenly at a loss of air. What was he even supposed to do? She was hugging him and all he could think about was how short she actually was compared to him and that it was sort of nice. No one had ever thanked him for anything either, especially for killing someone. It was an odd feeling, like accomplishment or something of sorts...he had no clue, he was bad at figuring out feelings.

Orihime released him, a huge smile on her face. Still she stayed close, looking up at him, like nothing was wrong with the world, like he wasn't what he was.

He should be angry at her for that, he was proud of what he was, but suddenly the urge to kiss her overcame him, clouding whatever else he might feel. He gave it no further thought feeling that it was the right thing to do. He leaned down and raised his other hand to sink it into her hair, but at the last moment realized that he was reaching out to her with his blood soiled hand. He cursed viciously because there was no way in fucking hell he's smearing her with something from that disgusting piece of trash.

She must have realized what he was about to do before he interrupted himself because she blushed, mouth slightly open and he could practically hear her heart beat frantically.

Before she could open her mouth to blab something or run away he used his other hand to angle her head and closed the distance between them, feeling instantaneous satisfaction at the contact, that her lips were as soft as they looked.

Her breath hitched and for the first few moments she was stiff like a board. He had to coax her with a gentle nibble on her lower lip for her to respond.

And respond she did. She fisted one of her hands in the front of his shirt, changing what before was a slow and languid to heated and passionate, instinct leading her.

Normally he would scoff at such a display of affection, but he couldn't deny that he enjoyed the pleasant tingles that ran down his spine from her warmth, that he liked the smell of her, the taste of her. He broke their kiss if just to see her flushed face, half lidded eyes, slightly parted lips and tousled hair courtesy to him.

She was breathing hard, their breaths intermingling and her eyes were locked onto his, clouded with something he couldn't put a name to. He couldn't deny that his attraction to her had changed from what it had been before. She made him feel things he didn't know he could feel and somehow that felt wrong yet so right.

He wanted to say something to break the silence, just to say something, to get some kind of confirmation that what he was doing was alright. It was a thought that surprised him, a feeling of insecurity he didn't know he possessed.

She broke his musings by slanting her lips against his again and lifting her other hand into his hair. He growled feeling her smile lightly against his lips.

That was her answer and he honestly didn't need more.

* * *

 _This ended nothing like I had planned for it to end. It was a lot more touchey feely and included a kiss that was not supposed to be there. But I guess I do kind of like the development it took, I realized that a simple hug might not have been enough closure._

 _Also I included plenty of references in this short, things that either amused me, left an impact on me or so. Just to be clear I am going to list them in order of appearance._

 _1\. Aizen/Chair-sama. Honest to god, during the last months of Bleach manga the comments on each chapter about Aizen's love with his chair just made my day and were the best parts in the whole comment section among the whining._

 _2\. "Don't touch my face!" which is a quote from Coronado by Walis. The story left a huge impression on me and the whole face thing was a running theme that I couldn't get out of my mind. I seriously love stories that manage to keep characters so in character that it feels like it could happen in the actual story. Kudos to this author._

 _3\. Spaghetti face/ spaghetti monster, can't tell about the universe to humans. Is a reference to Lovecraft's works. Spaghetti monster is how people jokingly refer to Cthulhu. Some of the themes and Aizen's general plans, which weren't named, but in my mind do revolve around this mythos. I imagined that Aizen is this Cthulhu wannabe that has a face similar to Davy Jones (while the Espada themselves have the appearances of these skeletal, fleshy monsters), desperately trying to be part of the God circle or something like that._

 _4\. "Do ya have a boyfriend?" "Ya want one?" are quotes from Worse Than Death by Dark Renegade. Apart from me laughing my ass off at Grimm's bluntness this scene stuck to me simply because I have faced a similar situation and idk I just find it hilarious._

 _I think that's it for now. I do want to thank anyone who read this all the way through and gave this a chance. Thank you for reading. Feedback is always appreciated._


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